Perfect Circle - Mystery Solved (and sorry for the wait!)

 

Okay, y'all - what even is time these days, amirite? I posted this Mystery Song ten months ago?! Anyway, I solved it pretty soon afterwards, but I never got around to posting the answer. Here we are, finally!

The Mystery Song from November last year turns out to be REM's "Perfect Circle," from their 1983 album, Murmur. It's the last seven syllables of the chorus phrase

"standing too soon, shoulders high in the room."

Above, I've made a better rendition since the original from-the-top-of-my-head attempt.

The video below is queued up to the best example in the actual song, at about 2:38 mins:



It's not surprising to me that it was an REM song (they're historically one of the most frequent bands in my head) but, in an appeal for ideas from my friends on Facebook back when this happened, my friend Joe pointed out that the melody is similar to Barry Manilow's beautiful "Weekend in New England."

I absolutely think that my neural path memory in this case cleaved close to the Manilow tune on this recollection! And I do wonder if Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe were unconsciously influenced by it, despite how cool they thought they were!

My online synth re-creation of the REM tune was misleading in a couple ways. One, the tempo of the actual song is slower, and two, the rhythm of the notes is steadier and less "waltzy" than I made it. These two things are also true of the Manilow song.

And here's "Weekend in New England" for comparison. The similar melodic interval is heard right away, and then gets repeated in the chorus:

 

Thanks everyone for playing along!

Artist: REM

Year: 1983

Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Barry Manilow
Year: 1976 (Yet another song from the US Bicentennial year!)

Rating: Warm

 

Every Day Is Like Sunday

And a strange dust lands on your hands
And on your face...

Artist: Morrissey
Year: 1988
Rating: Hot!

Fall On Me

Ask the sky, and ask the sky...

Artist: REM
Year: 1986
Rating: Hot!

Sour Times

Emerged in consciousness after a night traipsing through the rain in the Mission, content, curious, and just a shade of lonely.

Artist: Portishead
Year: 1994
Rating: Warm

Superball

(You'll have to play this video once to be amused by the hamster, and once to actually hear the song! "Nibbler" is quite distracting, but cute.)

This song has been in my head for weeks, but today was the first time I woke with it. Unbelievably, this is the first Aimee Mann song hitting the blog, despite the fact that she's one of my faves, and that I've seen her at least three times live. This morning, the song was ushered in by a dream: I was having a conversation with Aimee (clearly, we were on a first-name basis in my dream), and with some 20-somethings who had never heard her stuff. I was recommending albums they should listen to. The dream, in turn, I'm sure, had been prompted by a false sense of intimacy I'm feeling with her and with another indie rock hero of mine, Ted Leo, who have been touring together and being all lovey on the Twitter. Damn, wish I'd seen them on stage together.

Artist: Aimee Mann
Year: 1995
Rating: Luke Hot

Disturbance at the Heron House

Came to me suddenly after having been awake for a couple hours already. I was brushing my hair.

Artist: REM
Year: 1987
Rating: Luke Hot

Every Morning

The power of suggestion produced this earworm. Two nights ago, at trivia, I cluelessly suggested that the photo of Jason Mraz might've been Mark McGrath, but then remembered that Mark McGrath was the Sugar Ray dude who looks kinda like Ethan Hawke.

Now, I'm stuck with a four-post bed.

Artist: Sugar Ray
Year: 1998
Rating: Cold

Otherside

So meh about this band. But there they are.

Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Year: 1999
Rating: Lukewarm

Cornflake Girl

Dreamt about singing Tori Amos songs around a campfire last night. Woke with "Cornflake Girl." Above is her performance of the song on Letterman from 1994, which I viewed with friends in Santa Cruz on its original air date. It was the moment I realized how brilliant she is. I was a bit behind the curve; "Crucify" really annoyed me. But, fuck, can she rock a piano bench.

Artist: Tori Amos
Year: 1994
Rating: Hot!

Note: Tori's album Under the Pink, which featured "Cornflake Girl," was released exactly 18 years ago. Weird!

Down In It

I dunno, two months ago or so, this song was featured in the music round at The Castle Quiz, and Carl, the Quizmaster, wrongly attributed it to Rage Against the Machine. Our team, the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, knew better.

Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Year: 1989
Rating: Lukewarm

August Wrap-Up

I've had a lot of songs in my head over the last few weeks, but haven't had time or sufficient mental focus to post them. A quick inventory of the backlog for August follows, with notes where I'm moved to write them:

Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne arrived on my brain after hearing a review of the band's new album on NPR's Fresh Air. Aside from the inanity of this 2003 radio hit (a band's gotta have one to make the collective radar) I kind of dig them, and it occurs to me that this band is totally the American version of Sloan (not that that would mean anything to more than, like, two people reading this blog). Sadly, Sloan has no analogous annoying radio hit of their own (in the States).

David Duchovny by Bree Sharp (A rerun, last blogged on 8/31/09).

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, popularized by the Platters, came to me in a most ethereal way, a familiar tune I couldn't identify until looking up the fragments of lyrics I woke with one day. It seemed significant to me when I learned that the song originally appeared in an operetta called Roberta, which was my mom's name. When a lovely flame dies/Smoke gets in your eyes. The synchronistic throat lump supplied by the song's lyric shouldn't be lost on anyone reading who knows me. My mom died last year of complications of lung cancer. Smoke, indeed, gets in my eyes.

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. Pretty typical sooze-fare, nothing noteworthy about this one.

Give Me Back My Man by the B-52s. I'm relating to Kate Pierson's plaintive wail, I'll give you fish/I'll give you candy/I'll give you everything I have in my hand!



And then there was a song snippet that entered my consciousness somewhere between dream state and waking that was a bit peculiar. At first, I thought it was the theme from the film Ordinary People, but when I looked for the music for the film on YouTube and heard Pachelbel's Canon in D major I had to probe a different area of my memory banks. Then it just hit me: this is the theme from The Incredible Hulk TV show, which I'm sure I hadn't seen in more than 25 years. The memory is indeed mysterious, and I wonder how I was able to make the leap between a classical composition from the 17th Century and a spare piano riff from 70's TV. The song may bear some similarity to the melancholy musical themes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I'm currently re-watching.

Song: Stacy's Mom
Artist: Fountains of Wayne
Year: 2003
Rating: Lukewarm

Song: David Duchovny
Artist: Bree Sharp
Year: 1999
Rating: Luke Hot

Song: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Artist: The Platters
Year: 1958 (originally recorded by Gertrude Niesen for the Operetta Roberta in 1933)
Rating: Warm

Song: Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
Artist: Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty
Year: 1981
Rating: Luke Hot

Song: Give Me Back My Man
Artist: The B-52s
Year: 1980
Rating: Hot!

Song: The Lonely Man Theme (from The Incredible Hulk television series)
Artist: Joe Harnell
Year: 1977
Rating: n/a

The Middle

Damn catchy song. My mental jukebox is focused squarely on my emotional wranglings of late. I suspect it's true that everything (everything) will be all right, (ultimately). But it's indeed taking some time.

Artist: Jimmy Eat World
Year: 2002
Rating: Warm

Note: Wow, this video is douchey.

Endgame

Like a Stipean nigun.

Artist: R.E.M.
Year: 1991
Rating: Warm

Here's a lovely review by Matthew over at Pop Songs.

Clocks

I don't usually mention songs that come into my head only because I've freshly heard them; that immediate mental link seems too obvious to me. But the version I heard of Coldplay's big hit "Clocks" the other day was a unique one: I heard it in a Chinese restaurant; it was a Musak version played on wood flute. There are several instrumental covers of the song on YouTube, but I can't find the precise one.

Artist: Coldplay (Musak version: unknown)
Year: 2002
Rating: warm

Modern Man

Makes me feel like...

Artist: Arcade Fire
Year: 2010
Rating: Luke Hot

A Campfire Song, Redux

A song I've blogged twice before. Last in my head on June 22, 2010. Incidentally, this song also makes me think of Barry, whose birthday it is today! Happy birthday, you.

Artist: 10,000 Maniacs & Michael Stipe
Year: 1987
Rating: Luke Hot

My Alcoholic Friends

So glad these freaks have come into my life!

Artist: The Dresden Dolls
Year: 2006
Rating: Luke Hot

New Year's Day

May possibly be the only popular song ever written about the Polish Solidarity movement. Not sure why it's in my head, but up with the trade unionists!

Artist: U2
Year: 1983
Rating: Luke Hot

Galileo, Redux

Last in my head on January 15, 2010.

Artist: Indigo Girls
Year: 1992

Under the Milky Way

Wish I knew what you were looking for/ Might have known what you would find. Had a vague sense of lyric and mood dovetailing with this song this morning.* Artist: The Church Year: 1988 Rating: Luke Hot *I'll help you find it if you'll let me.